Well, for one thing, you didn't phrase it in the form of a question. (kidding) I'm the last one here to criticize someone just pointing out a pet peeve and asking the community what they think! :)

As far as the construction mentioned... it's "all but" extinct in the speech of the people I deal with daily. The most common substitute seems to be the EVEN WORSE DON'T GET ME STARTED "practically." As in, "Dammit, look where you're driving--you practically killed that pedestrian."

Nothing practical about it, of course. LOL

Hello, Ms. Mourer!

Sometimes, in grammar, things really are what they seem, and these words that look so much like adverbs (with their -ly suffix) really are adverbs! You may, in this case, even drop the suffix and say "first," "second," "third," and so on.

They are used for listing things. The word commonly used for this is "enumeration," and though I am NOT a linguist, I suspect this may be the technical term as well.

Here is a place to begin. I have a link to a brief definition of "firstly," which includes some notes on usage: http://www.bartleby.com/61/37/F0143700.html

You may also wish to look into "parallel construction" to see some ways to make enumeration sound elegant. Parallel construction is my favorite vice. One of them, anyway. :D

(slaps own hand for mistyping... Dyske, can we have a preview-before-posting, please?)

That's fine, rob honey. You keep on believeing that, and we'll tell you why the girls always seem to, well, not come back for a second date.

More information (tyou really needed more information on this, didn't you) can be found in this blog post:

http://jenlars.mu.nu/archives/004760.html

She explains that the expression is a milder form of another, even more unbelievably vulgar, expression used in the miltary since 1935.

I see no reason to disbelieve her.

NEXT subject? lol

Oh, Christ, is that ever vulgar. :)

Origin? You probably know the expression "to screw (something) up." In order to intensify the idea, someone came up with the bright idea of adding a word that shared its vowel sound and sounded vulgar/funny as well.

Meaning? "You really messed up big this time, didn't you."

LOL. I think I know what happened. Amy read my post and had what we in Texas affectionately call a "brain fart." She saw "vowel" and thought "consonant," and saw 'consonant" and thought "vowel," and decided then and there to set me "straight." She probably died of embarrassment when she realized what she posted. I know the feeling. I've done it too.

all your base are belong to us!

Yes, IngisKahn, that's exactly it, thank you. I can be the very bitch mother of impatience sometimes.

I always thought it wasn't "think different," but something more like, oh, I don't know...

Think, "different."

(Speedwell, the Texan, who thinks of anything north of the Mason-Dixon Line as "North," and who barely remenbers snow, wonders briefly what planet Alaska is in.)